Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-04-01
CRIMINAL BIOGRAPHY
THE EXTRAORDINARY AMOUNT ORBADNRSS
POSSESSED BY KISSANE.
The NUtsd FOger, Incsndiary, RobbT and Murderer
An Astonishing List Of Grimes With Which
He Oharged-Hs Success in
Playing the Vanishing Trick.

wealthy mems names to q science, and wht
for long time made the opening of a bsnl
account very risky means Of saving
money.
These rascals were to the last degre.
adroit and clever in their manner Of work
ing, and long defied the law. After thou
sands of dollars had been gathered int
their joint treasury, however, three of thu
forgers- and two Of them happened to b
| the chief conspirators- little piece o
work in November, 1854, which was very
clever, but not quite clever enough, anG
they were gathered into the meshes of &
legal net thrown about them.
Bill Kissane, Lyman Cole and Andrew
Findlay, the men arrested, were indicted
for forgery in the first degree in having oh.
tanned Sc, OPS from the Chemical Bank on
forged check, and again ior having beaten
the American Exchange Bank out Of Sl2,.
600 on another forged check. The case
was dilly y-dallied with by District Attor,
ney Oakley Hall, shifted from one court to
another, and Cole and Findlay were finally
for some reason, allowed to 20. KisSane,
less fortunate, was convicted in the Court
of General Sessions and brought before
Recorder Fallon for sentence. The Re-
corder had determined, he afterward said,
to impose the full term of five years i'm
prisonment, but when arraigned Kissane,
then sprightly young man, made such an
able address for leniency, pleading his
youth, his good family connections, his
previous good character, and presented all
his points with such eloquent force that
the Recorder, affected by the harangue,
reduced the intended sentence to two years
and six months OF this the enterprising
forger served but nine months, when, by
some influence the Governor was
brought to grant pardon and he was re-
leased.
ISCENDARISM AND MURDER.
For some years after this no one in this
part of the country heard anything about
the eX-forger. He had gone west and that
was all that was known OF him. But at
the beginning of the civil war there was a
report which reached New York that Kis-
sane had somehow struck it rich in Ohio
and was doing rushing business in steam.
boats plying between points along the Ohio
river.
Hardly had this report been digested in
New York-his forging exploits had won
him a name and everybody had known
him or of him-when another aud far diff
ferent report came bowling along. A big
steamboat, the Martha Washington, a part
of which kissane owned, had been burned
to the waters edge at a wharf, and the cir
cumstances suggested incendiarism. The
boat was heavily insured, too heavily il
was thought.
Kissane was arrested, but after long in
vestigation the authorities failed to get
any definite proof and he was finally dis
charged. lie disappeared again, but alter
lapse of further years turned up in a
rather startling manner away out in Mis-
sour. He had made o home 10. little
settlement in that State, and as farmer
had begun to get along beautifully, when
an unfortunate thing occurred. One Of
his neighbOrs one day had the temrerity,
not Knowing the pushing KisSane's record,
to quarrel With him and TO denounce him
for his part in questionable money
transaction. Early on the following morn
ing this incautious man-Or rather his
bOdy---was found lying at his front door,
a bullet hole through his head, and not
much that was valuable remaining in his
establishment.
THE DISAPPEARING TRICK REPEATED.
Kissane, when they went TO look for
him, had renewed his old trick and had
disappeared, and to this day the people of
that part have not laid eyes upon him.
This disappearance was more of lasting
one than either previous departure, and it
becomes the mission of the press in this
city TO make it appear that the willy kis-
sanes last and final disappearance into the
uncertainties of the hereafter is yet to be
made.
Kissane was born in Ohio. His was an
excellent family, and the youngster was
given every possible opportunity TO i'm
prove his mind and TO prepare for a sue
ceSsiul struggle for fame and fortune. In
this he was so apt pupil that, when still
a youth, he had identified himself some
what unpleasantly in the burning down Of
the establishment Of Mr.. Francis Darr.
Kissane had gone into business, Darr was
his successful rival and Darr's place Of
business was destroyed. The story Of the
recognition of Kissane by General Darr
many years afterward in San Francisco has
been told in these dispatches. Kissane had
changed his name, become wealthy, mar
red and was one of the most respected cit
izens, of q small city in California. Darr
used many means TO expose the fraud, but
failed. He stirred up Mr.. Kissane, how.
ever, and that gentleman remembered with
fear that an unquashed indictment for
forgery against him remained among the
effects of the New York District Attorneys
Office.
THE CHEMICAL. BANK CASE
never had been disposed Of He grew
restiye and anxious. Peace in his old age
was in jeopardy. His anxiety finally cul-
minated in the appearance the other day
in New York Of San Francisco lawyer,
J. X. Hart, who, rs reported, asked Re-
corder Smythe TO dismiss the Chemical
Bank case, and the Recorder refused to do
it until the bank was heard from. General
Darr has written TO the Attorney General
earnestly opposing any such action. Thus
the matter rests, The assumed name Of
the ex-criminal is religously kept secret.
1t may be divulged in the coming argu.
ment before Recorder Smythe. Meanwhile
life to Mr.. Kissane is perhaps a trifle en-
bittered.
A dispatch from San Francisco states
that the Kissane story has created a pro-
found sensation in that city. Who IL
Kissane?" was the question that every one
asked his neighbor. Tremendous efforts
have been made by some persons 10 keep
further mention Of the matter cut OF the
papers, aud all have promised silence. One
of his friends said that Kissane had never
lived in San Francisco, done business nor
held Office there. Furthermore, that Kis-
sane was living in an interior county and
had family Of grown-up daughters, and
that il would be Q sin 10 wreck their lives
because Of the fathers youthful indiscre-
tions.
Their Last Rpee Ride.
PIrTsBURG, March 3i.-Through trains